21st Century Haiku


Book Description

According to my English dictionary haiku means: amusement in verse; Oxford Dictionaries differ slightly with: light verse, and add that it's a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five-seven-five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world; and also that it can be a poem in English written in the form of a haiku. The great haiku master Basho died in 1694 at the age of fifty; it was common in those days to observe a few other rules of composition, which many of us have deliberately disregarded in the micro-poetic world of today. Twitter, with its limitation of 140 characters, has surprisingly provided a platform for all manner of short form poetry celebrating many of the mundane, and eternal themes such as love, life, death, and the natural world. Perhaps, even Basho would accept that in the 21st century we should be allowed to express ourselves more freely and decide the contents of the haiku rule book - if we have one. Simplicity & beauty should be the main aim.




575 Haiku Book


Book Description

575 Haiku Book is an irreverent and comedic poetry book filled with five hundred and seventy-five haikus plus lots of great illustrations. Written by two best friends in their college dorm, Mara and Mackenzie have created a one of a kind read.




Welcome to FOB Haiku


Book Description

"Sherpatude no. 26: 'Humor is a combat multiplier ...' Has your war become workaday? Does life on the Forward Operating Base (FOB) now seem commonplace? Armed with deadpan snark and poker-faced patriotism -- and rooted in the coffee-black soil and plain-spoken voice of the American Midwest -- journalist-turned-poet Randy Brown reveals behind-the-scenes stories of U.S. soldier-citizenship. From Boot Camp to Bagram, Afghanistan. And back home again." --




"Rise, Ye Sea Slugs!"


Book Description

Rise, Ye Sea Slugs! is a book of many faces. First, it is a book of translated haiku and contains over 900 of these short Japanese poems in the original (smoothly inserted in the main body),with phonetic and literal renditions, as well as the authors English translations and explanations. All but a dozen or two of the haiku are translated for the first time. There is an index of poets, poems and a bibliography. Second, it is a book of sea slug haiku, for all of the poems are about holothurians, which scientists prefer to call sea cucumbers. (The word cucumber is long for haiku and metaphorically unsuitable for many poems, so poetic license was taken.) With this book, the namako, as the sea cucumber is called in Japanese, becomes the most translated single subject in haiku, surpassing the harvest moon, the snow, the cuckoo, butterflies and even cherry blossoms. Third, it is a book of original haiku. While the authors original intent was to include only genuine old haiku (dating back to the 17th century), modern haiku were added and, eventually, Keigu (Gills haiku name) composed about a hundred of his own to help fill out gaps in the metaphorical museum. For many if not most modern haiku taken from the web, it is also their first time in print! Fourth, it is a book of metaphor. How may we arrange hundreds of poems on a single theme? Gill divides them into 21 main metaphors, including the Cold Sea Slug, the Mystic Sea Slug, the Helpless Sea Slug, the Slippery Sea Slug, the Silent Sea Slug, and the Melancholy Sea Slug, giving each a chapter, within which the metaphors may be further subdivided, and adds a 100 pages of Sundry Sea Slugs (scores of varieties including Monster, Spam, Flying, Urban Myth, and Exploding). Fifth, it is a book on haiku. E ditors usually select only the best haiku, but, Gill includes good and bad haiku by everyone from the 17th century haiku master to the anonymous haiku rejected in some internet contest. This is not to say all poems found were included, but that the standard was along more taxonomic or encyclopedic lines: poems that filled in a metaphorical or sub-metaphorical gap were always welcome. Also, Gill shows there is more than one type of good haiku. These are new ways to approach haiku. Sixth, it is a book on translation. There are approximately 2 translations per haiku, and some boast a dozen. These arearranged in mixed single, double and triple-column clusters which make each reading seem a different aspect of a singular, almost crystalline whole. The authors aim is to demonstrate that multiple reading (such as found in Hofstadters Le Ton Beau de Marot) is not only a fun game but a bona fide method of translating, especially useful for translating poetry between exotic tongues. Seventh, it is a book of nature writing, natural history or metaphysics (in the Emersonian sense). Gill tried to compile relevant or interesting (not necessarily both) historical -- this includes the sea slug in literature, English or Japanese, and in folklore -- and scientific facts to read haiku in their light or, conversely, bringor wring out science from haiku. Unlike most nature writers, Gill admits to doing no fieldwork, but sluggishly staying put and relying upon reportsfrom more mobile souls. Eighth, it is a book about food symbolism. The sea cucumber is noticed by Japanese because they eat it; the eating itselfinvolves physical difficulties (slipperiness and hardness) and pleasures from overcoming them. It is also identified with a state of mind, where you are what you eat takes on psychological dimensions not found in the food literature of the West. Ninth, it is a book about Japanese culture. Gill does not set out to explain Japan, and the sea slug itself is silent;but the collection of poems and their explanations, which include analysis by poets who responded to the author's questions as well has historical sources, take us all around the culture, from ancient myths to contemporary dreams. Tenth, it is a book about sea cucumbers. While most species of sea cucumbers are not mentioned and the coverage of the Japanese sea cucumber is sketchy from the scientific point of view, Gill does introduce this animal graced to live with no brain thanks to the smart materials comprising it and blessed for sucking in dirty sediment and pooping it out clean. Eleventh, it is a book about ambiguity. Gill admits there is much that cannot be translated, much he cannot know and much to be improved in future editions, for which purpose he advises readers to see the on-line Glosses and Errata in English and Japanese. His policy is to confide in, rather than slip by the reader unnoticed, in the manner of the invisible modern translator and allow the reader to makechoices or choose to allow multiple possibilities to exist by not chosing.Twelfth, the book is the first of dozens of spin-offs from a twenty-book haiku saijiki (poetic almanac) called In Praise of Olde Haiku (IPOOH, for short) Gill hopes to finish within the decade. Thirteenth. The book is a novelty item. It has a different (often witty) header (caption) on top of each page and copious notes that are rarely academic and oftehumorous.




I Haiku You


Book Description

A collection of haikus follows a Valentine's Day theme and combine an introduction to the poetic form with cartoon-style illustrations.




Surrounded by Friends


Book Description

Matthew Rohrer at his best. Humorous, quotidian, urban, and conversational poems about family and friendship.




The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches


Book Description

'It was with awe That I beheld Fresh leaves, green leaves, Bright in the sun' When the Japanese haiku master Basho composed The Narrow Road to the Deep North, he was an ardent student of Zen Buddhism, setting off on a series of travels designed to strip away the trappings of the material world and bring spiritual enlightenment. He writes of the seasons changing, the smell of the rain, the brightness of the moon and the beauty of the waterfall, through which he sensed the mysteries of the universe. These writings not only chronicle Basho's travels, but they also capture his vision of eternity in the transient world around him. Translated with an Introduction by Nobuyuki Yuasa




Japanese Death Poems


Book Description

"A wonderful introduction the Japanese tradition of jisei, this volume is crammed with exquisite, spontaneous verse and pithy, often hilarious, descriptions of the eccentric and committed monastics who wrote the poems." --Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Although the consciousness of death is, in most cultures, very much a part of life, this is perhaps nowhere more true than in Japan, where the approach of death has given rise to a centuries-old tradition of writing jisei, or the "death poem." Such a poem is often written in the very last moments of the poet's life. Hundreds of Japanese death poems, many with a commentary describing the circumstances of the poet's death, have been translated into English here, the vast majority of them for the first time. Yoel Hoffmann explores the attitudes and customs surrounding death in historical and present-day Japan and gives examples of how these have been reflected in the nation's literature in general. The development of writing jisei is then examined--from the longing poems of the early nobility and the more "masculine" verses of the samurai to the satirical death poems of later centuries. Zen Buddhist ideas about death are also described as a preface to the collection of Chinese death poems by Zen monks that are also included. Finally, the last section contains three hundred twenty haiku, some of which have never been assembled before, in English translation and romanized in Japanese.




In the Same Light


Book Description

Shortlisted for the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize 2023 Shortlisted for the National Translation Award in Poetry 2023 by the American Literary Translators Association The Poetry Book Society Spring 2022 Translation Choice Chinese poetry is unique in world literature in that it was written for the best part of 3,000 years by exiles, and Chinese history can be read as a matter of course in the words of poets. In this collection from the Tang Dynasty are poems of war and peace, flight and refuge but above all they are plain-spoken, everyday poems; classics that are everyday timeless, a poetry conceived "to teach the least and the most, the literacy of the heart in a barbarous world," says the translator. C.D. Wright has written of Wong May's work that it is "quirky, unaffectedly well-informed, capacious, and unpredictable in [its] concerns and procedures," qualities which are evident too in every page of her new book, a translation of Du Fu and Li Bai and Wang Wei, and many others whose work is less well known in English. In a vividly picaresque afterword, Wong May dwells on the defining characteristics of these poets, and how they lived and wrote in dark times. This translator's journal is accompanied and prompted by a further marginal voice, who is figured as the rhino: "The Rhino 通ċ¤İ犀 in Tang China held a special place," she writes, "much like the unicorn in medieval Europe ― not as conventional as the phoenix or the dragon but a magical being; an original spirit", a fitting guide to China's murky, tumultuous Middle Ages, that were also its Golden Age of Poetry, and to this truly original book of encounters, whose every turn is illuminating and revelatory.




Chiyo-ni


Book Description

Chiyo-Ni (1703-1775) is one of Japan's most unusual and renowned haiku poets, and this volume, the first major translation of her work in English, contains over 100 haiku, reproduced in Japanese script, Romaji, and in English. Chiyo-ni was one of the very few great female poets from an age when haiku was dominated by men. Her verses embody Zen-like simplicity and female sensuality, and reflect her life as a Buddhist nun, painter and poet who lived a life of supreme independence and aesthetic sensibility.




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